End-of-year Educational Reflections

Now that finals week is done in most places (at least undergraduate and graduate!), it's time for those involved in education to reflect on the happenings of the semester, and potentially the year. I find it useful to reflect in the middle as well as at the end, and indeed, I have two more semesters of teaching remaining in this academic year. What have we (author and readers) learned about education this year?

Graduate Teacher's Perspective

As you may know, I have taught since 2021 in a doctor of physical therapy program that uses a flipped-classroom model for course delivery. This year, I am now at the point of having taught each relevant course at least twice, and most 3-4 times, which anecdotally sets me up for actually knowing what I'm doing. Adding on to that committee work, scholarship, and advising duties, I have a busy-looking daily to-do list.

The Good

As I just mentioned, I am now more comfortable teaching the many courses I am either wholly or partially responsible for. As a result of finding out what things work, and being able to copy a course from one to another part of the university's learning management system, I am now more efficient. In the flipped classroom, lectures are pre-recorded and the videos and PDF slides posted for students to go through on their own outside of class meeting time. Updating lectures now means just going to the slide(s) in question, updating the appearance and/or script, re-recording that slide, and letting my computer create the video out of the updated file.

Having taught for almost 3 academic years, I am now also seeing the growth from students I taught in the first year who are at the point in their third year of going out into the clinical world and--very soon--taking the licensure exam. While it's hard for someone to see their own day-to-day change, it's easy for others to compare across longer time intervals and comment on what has changed and what has stayed the same.

Finally, the end-of-semester program assessment meeting took place earlier this week. The main focus was on student-related concerns, resulting in a good group knowledge of where everyone is academically and professionally, and what to change or focus on in instructional and classroom management strategies moving forward. One example is that many or all of my fellow professors will strengthen their attendance/tardiness policies in order to foster the professional behavior of timeliness in the students who struggle more with it as a cohort.

The Bad

Learning by experience tends to be more immediately effective via challenging experiences, and this semester and year have had their share. A 2010 opinion piece holds true in what we're seeing in 2023, in terms of emotional (im)maturity of students and the impacts of such a state. To partially mitigate this, each applicant to our program completes a grit self-assessment scale, and advising meetings help to establish where the student is in terms of professional behaviors (sample assessment tool and list/descriptors here).

That said, particular issues I've seen in the current cohorts include stronger resistance to active learning ("why am I paying tuition if I have to teach myself?"), fear of trying to apply content during studying without having proverbial hand-holding, prioritization of non-academic hobbies, and resistance to professional socialization. Sometimes, the issues coalesce and result in a lower semester grade average than needed to maintain good standing in the program, and other times dismissal with the need to reapply and start the program all over again. There's only so much that a professor or advisor can say to an advisee in hopes of seeing the (sometimes drastic) behavior changes needed to succeed in the program and beyond.

From a university level, typical challenges have involved ever-evolving standards with sometimes-delayed communication about how to implement those standards. This is par for the course in the 21st century, but it's still a stressor.

Early Childhood Educator's Perspective

While I'm technically not specifically/formally trained in early childhood education, I do have an "early" child and am providing education to said Child. Over the past year, I've had some delightful learnings in the background to this process and its outworking in our family life.

Parental Preparation

Both Husband and I have prepared ourselves to better educate Child by continuing our inveterate reading habits. Husband is slightly ahead of me in book total for the year (though with enough books-in-progress to potentially reach 80, as he gloated to me today); I have 4 books in progress that may bring me to 60 by December 31 if I'm diligent. Most of these have been in the 200-600 page range, and since the weather got cold I've shifted toward a few audiobooks to compensate for gloved fingers.

What categories of books have we read? You'll have to wait for next week's post to find out more detail, but my reading areas have been theology, origins debates, and philosophical history. Husband's have been similar, with the addition of biblical book commentaries and ancient history to prepare for potential graduate work in philosophy. 

Child Development

Child has been learning by imitation, as is appropriate for this time of life. Favorite items to imitate right now, by incessant repetition, are dancing steps, musical notes, vowel sounds, and pragmatic words. We have gotten over 630 hours outside for the year so far, which I am quite proud of!

Young Christian Family's Perspective

Not only are Husband and I educating Child and my own university students in skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them for their vocations, but also we seek to center our lives on our Christian faith. How have we done that this year?

At Home

It has now been almost two years since we transferred from the LCMS to the ACNA. If anything, the regularity of our faith life has increased (not by much in busy seasons). Part of Anglican identity is linked to consistent, individual/family use of the Book of Common Prayer for at least one Daily Office. My Bible reading plan since finishing again a month or so ago has been to read the morning and evening Office readings, which will take me through the majority of the canonical and apocryphal books.

As a family, we model practices and behaviors to each other, such as mealtime prayers, Morning or Evening Prayer with Child, and reminders of social standards of behavior such as using vocal pitches that don't hurt other people's ears, and not throwing breakable or spillable items. Last week, I started reading After You Believe (Wright, 2009), which is reminding me as I read of the need to inculcate virtue on an ongoing basis by means of guiding Child through repeated small choices.

At Church

One thing I'm really thankful for about the ACNA (which may be true of parts of other denominations as well) is its use of a single liturgy, every single Sunday. The translations of the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds (Latin using "I" and Greek using "We" but ACNA tweaking singular versus plural) were just different enough to take us almost the first year to get used to without referring back to the BCP. 

A major result of this repetition is that Child can and does participate fully in the entire service with the occasional exception of the sermon. There's enough movement of music, antiphonal response, and different readers and worship assistants that there is no lapse in attention in 60-75 minutes. Lately, we have been hearing an almost-tuneful vowel version of the Doxology on repeat whenever Child is waking up, awake, or falling asleep. The point at which this occurs in the service is consistent, with clear cues, both helpful for drawing Child's attention to learn the rhythm and pitch progression.

We've learned from other families as well. Several in the congregation also homeschool, and at least one blends homeschooling with externally supported group classical-cum-Charlotte Mason education. The final exams in this method, which I regrettably didn't have exposure to in my experience of being homeschooled, involve written essays without prior review. One 4th (?) grader whose mother I talked to recently wrote 15 pages of essays in one day of finals, freely recalling and explaining everything he knew about the persons and phenomena in the essay prompts.

Lastly, for our own and others' edification, Husband and I have been learning Greek and going through Surprised by Hope, almost to the end of chapter 4 after a full semester. Chapters 3 and 4 of the book are summaries of Wright's 800-page works, so we've spent a little over a month on each. Through spring quarter/semester, we plan to finish the book, which ties in at the end with themes from After You Believe.

What have you learned this year that was valuable to you?